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Go Configure!

Configuration management problems can derail the best of software projects. Walk through the basics of how to make CM work for—not against—you.

Dwayne Phillips
Agile Meetings

Does the thought of going to yet another meeting make your head spin? Read about how to increase your team's productivity by making your meetings short, frequent, and focused.

Linda Rising's picture Linda Rising
Targeted Fault Insertion

Some programs must handle network errors, file system errors, and the like. Testing their error handling manually can be tedious and time consuming. Relying on accidental errors is unreliable and uncontrollable. Learn about a method for simulating errors that makes the process automated and flexible.

Paul Houlihan
Forecasting Software Defects

The six weeks of testing you've been preparing for are suddenly reduced to one, but you still want to provide some assessment of overall quality. Read about this statistical approach to predicting the number of failed test cases in an application.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Bug Tracking Basics

Effective bug tracking assures that bugs are logged, fixed, and verified by the appropriate personnel. Here's a beginner's guide to this process.

Mitch Allen
What a Tangled Web

Web applications provide platforms so wide open that they defy the very structure and predictability that make test automation feasible. Object names are optional, can be duplicated, and may change at a moment's notice. Page layouts can change between and within builds. This wicked combination makes test automation even more difficult, if not downright impossible. Linda Hayes explains the importance of unique, consistent object names in Web development.

Linda Hayes's picture Linda Hayes
Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Losing your job is never easy, but the way you handle the experience has a direct impact on the results that you'll be able to achieve. Being laid off can make you question your abilities, but you have to roll with the punches, and enjoy your time off while you're looking for the next opportunity.

Stefan P. Jaskiel
A Look at a Test Data Generator

When Pat McGee couldn't find the right tool for the job, he and his team wrote one in Visual Basic for Applications for Microsoft Excel. They used Excel for all the data entry and calculations. Several groups in the project ended up using the tool–including testers, developers, and database administrators. Read how they did it.

Pat McGee
Hidden Risks in Web Code

A look at the HTML source code behind Web sites can often reveal security issues that would never be uncovered by those blissfully ignorant of the code. This bug report will examine two common methods of maintaining state and passing data in Web-based systems–hidden form fields and the HTTP GET method–and demonstrate some of the associated security risks through an examination of HTML code.

Rich Brauchle
Ken Schwaber on Agile Processes

Agile processes are founded on an empirical model of process control theory, and they deliver value iteratively and incrementally. Customers and development teams collaborate to wrest the greatest value from advanced technologies and emerging requirements, which practitioners call "value-driven" software development. Here, the developer of the agile process Scrum gives his recommendations for sources on agile processes.

Ken Schwaber

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